I was in the grocery store yesterday waiting in line behind an elderly lady who was buying a loaf of bread, quart of milk and a couple of other small items. It was in the middle of the day and there weren't a lot of check out lines open and I wasn't in any particular hurry. As I stood there while they rang up her purchase, I watched as she reached deep inside of her purse and pulled out her check book, wrapped in at least five rubber bands. I patiently watched as the checker, a young girl in her 20's waited for the woman to methodically and exactly write out her check for her purchase.
Afterwards as the woman walked towards the exit of the store, I asked the checker "What was that paper thing that that lady had just given you in exchange for her groceries?"..... Not understanding my humor, the checker looked at me and said... "It was a check Sir...", in a tone between disbelief and annoyance with me. I smiled and said... "Oh.. that's what that was!"... She then realized I was being "funny" and started to laugh and tell me all about how long some people take to write out their checks and how some people cover the check with their hands as they write, so nobody around them can see their "personal information"....
Nobody was waiting behind me, so I took the opportunity to ask this young 20-something checker if she had ever heard of a "counter check". She gave me a curious look so I promptly dated myself by starting out... "Well, when I was your age.... I remember when banks used to put a pad of blank checks out on the checkout line at the grocery stores... It was nothing but a plain pad of paper, check sized, with the banks name, basic check writing fields and what at that time was the banks identification number (now known as a routing number). Nowhere on the check was an account number because this was a universal check. People back then (in the 60's) would write their signature legibly and the checker behind the counter knew you, your brother, your sister, your aunt, uncle, mother, father, grandparents, cousins and even your in-laws... AND the local Banker knew you. In fact, there was likely to be TWO books of counter checks at the checkout... one from the local bank and another from a competing bank at the next town... all though nobody ever wrote checks on THAT account.... "
By this time the young 20-something checker was staring at me with a glazed over look like, "Why did he pick MY line to come through today"...... I smiled and thought to myself that I was lucky to live in such a great place that I do and that although the times have changed and debit cards are now the norm and there are no longer blank counter checks at the grocery store, things really haven't changed that much.
There will always be little old lady's with their checkbooks all rubber banded up... and there will always be young 20-something grocery checkers forcing smiles through their teeth at people like me as I begin to play that "I remember when game" myself... I just wonder.. when I'm 80, will I have a stack of ATM cards in my pocket all rubber banded together and will there be people in their late 40's behind me watching.... waiting to tell their memory of the days of how people used to use "green paper called CASH" to buy their groceries?